Marginal note:Use of trade secret for the benefit of foreign economic entity

19(1) Every person commits an offence who, at the direction of, for the benefit of or in association with a foreign economic entity, fraudulently and without colour of right and to the detriment of Canada’s economic interests, international relations or national defence or national security

(a) communicates a trade secret to another person, group or organization; or

Marginal note:Punishment

(2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 10 years.

Marginal note:Defence

(3) A person is not guilty of an offence under subsection (1) if the trade secret was

(a) obtained by independent development or by reason only of reverse engineering; or

(b) acquired in the course of the person’s work and is of such a character that its acquisition amounts to no more than an enhancement of that person’s personal knowledge, skill or expertise.

Marginal note:Meaning of “trade secret”

(4) For the purpose of this section, trade secret means any information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, method, technique, process, negotiation position or strategy or any information contained or embodied in a product, device or mechanism that